China has been making huge strides in the field of robotics. Naturally, they are pursuing military applications, but there are other uses developing as well.

In 2026, China’s robotics sector is no longer defined primarily by defense headlines or experimental military prototypes.

In the 1986 movie “Short Circuit,” a military robot named Johnny 5 is struck by lightning and suddenly programmed with human-like artificial intelligence. The movie’s genre was labeled science fiction ...